Story
Rancho (Amir Khan), Farhan (Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman Joshi) are classmates in a premiere engineering college in India. They are from different backgrounds (one ultra rich, one middle class and another poor economic background). Dean Viru (Boman Irani) is a follows a strict regime and believes in putting peer pressure on students. Rancho is of opinion that students should never chase grades, but they should love what they are doing. The rest of the story is all about how Rancho makes a difference to his friends and proves that the dean is wrong.

Actors:
Aamir Khan looks like a teenager with young outlook. R Madhavan is good as a student who has his heart set elsewhere. Sharman Joshi is a perfect fit for a guy from poverty-stricken family. Kareena Kapoor’s role is little passive in the movie and she is good. She looks little elder to Aamir Khan. Boman Irani has done a character that has striking similarities to that of his character in Munnabhai MBBS. The guy who did the role of NRI is cool.

Technical departments:

Story - screenplay – direction: The story of this movie has roots in Chetan Bhagat’s first novel ‘Five Point Someone’ – a semi-biographical book set in the backdrop of IIT. Raj Kumar Hirani and Abhijit Joshi have taken the basic gist and a few instances from the book and penned a fresh story. Screenplay of the movie is refreshing with spaced flashback narration. You will have something to look forward to in the entire movie. Direction is excellent. I have read ‘Five Point Someone’ and loved it. The only part in the book I didn’t like is the procedure they go through when the steal the question paper from dean’s office. Thankfully, the director modified it to make it look simple.

The following parts are retained from the book –

1. Three different backgrounds for each of three students.
2. Hero falling in love with dean’s daughter.
3. References to death of Dean’s son.
4. Poor student trying to commit suicide and breaking his legs

Characterization changes compared to the book

1. Hari (Rancho) character is completely modified. The entire book is written from Hari’s point of view. In the movie, the remaining two characters narrate the story of Rancho (Hari).
2. Ryan (Farhan) character is completely changed. Ryan is a man who is into alcohol and grass. Whereas Farhan has a passion for photography in the movie. And his passion is to become a wildlife photographer. But he joined engineering college to satisfy his parents. Alok (Raju) character is kept intact in the movie.
3. Professor’s daughter character is cut down.

The refreshing changes in story –

1. The interval episode is excellent.
2. Baby delivery episode is amazing.
3. The final scene between NRI and Aamir Khan is superb.
4. The relationship between heroine and her brand-crazy materialistic beau is developed very well.

Here are the best scenes in the movie –

1. Aamir Khan intro episode where he replies to the ragging senior.
2. Aamir Khan asking why astronauts can’t use pencil and Boman Irani replying to it towards the climax.
3. The entire sequences of showing Sharman’s family episodes in black & white color.
4. The way Madhavan convinces his parents.
5. Hindi speech episode by NRI student makes you laugh uncontrollably (thanx to the funny usage of balatkar and sthan).
6. The style in which Sharman replies to the questions in the interview
7. The methods used by Aamir to make injured Sharman as a normal guy.
8. The baby delivery episode
9. The climax episode of NRI meeting the scientist.

The director seems to be still having in the hangover of Munnabhai MBBS

1. Boman Irani characterization is similar (he plays professor in both the movies) and hero falls in love with professor’s daughter in both the movies.
2. The hospital scenes (baby delivery and sharman’s hospitalization) have similar tone in both the movies.
3. If Munnabhai 1 & 2 professed Jaadu Ki jhappi and Gandhigiri, 3 Idiots comes up with another philosophy of ‘all is well’.

Other technical departments: Cinematography CK Muraleedharan is excellent. Music by Shantanu Moitra sound average when you listen and watch the promos, but it sounds very good in the movie because of well-conceived songs and their proper placement. Editing is very good. You don’t find the movie lengthy though the runtime is almost 3 hours. Dialogues are witty as well as thought-provoking.

Analysis: 3 Idiots is a movie that has both entertainment and sentiment mixed in the right proportions. It is also a message oriented film and it gives the message with nice entertainment. All the alumni of engineering colleges will have a nostalgic moment in the movie as we can identify ourselves with one character among there three idiots (for me, it reminded me of my BITS Pilani days). People in the theatre were clapping after the movie is finished and it shows the kind of impact 3 Idiots has it on it’s viewers. On a whole, ‘3 Idiots’ is a wonderful film and I recommend it to everybody.

Tailpiece:

My observation of the works of Chetan Bhagat: I never completed reading any novel in English (except for The Alchemist) till I got my hands on ‘Five Point Someone’. Chetan Bhagat's simple and plain English makes it a pleasant reading for people who are not used to read English fiction. I loved the entire book of Five Point Someone except for the episode that follows after stealing question paper. I also liked ‘One Night at the call centre’. The only thing I didn’t connect with that book is the episode of accident. It took me a while to complete ‘3 mistakes of my life’. I had to forcibly read one chapter a day. I recently bought ‘2 states’ and read the half of the book very interestingly. Book i stopped reading it after completing 75% of it. I am not interested in reading that book anymore. It is hightime for Chetan Bhagat to come up with an interesting book next time as the quality is going down gradually in his works.